476 NE W A TLA NT1S&amp;gt; 



was, but such is the truth. The Phoenicians, and especially the 

 Tyrians, had great fleets ; so had the Carthaginians their colony, which 

 is yet further west. Toward the cast the shipping of Egypt and of 

 Palestine was likewise great ; China also, and the great Atlantis, that 

 you call America, which have now but junks and canoes, abounded 

 then in tall ships. This island, as appearelh by faithful registers of 

 those times, had then fifteen hundred strong ships of great content. 

 Of all this there is with you sparing memory, or none ; but we have 

 large knowledge theieof. 



&quot;At that time, this land was known and frequented by the ships 

 and vessels of all the nations before named, and, as it cometh to pass, 

 they had many times men of other countries that were no sailors that 

 came with them ; as Persians, Chaldeans, Arabians ; so as almost all 

 nations of might and fame resorted hither, of whom we have some 

 stirps and little tribes with us at this day. And for our own ships, 

 they went sundry voyages, as well to your straits, which you call 

 the Pillars of Hercules, as to other parts in the Atlantic and Mediter 

 ranean Seas; as to Pegu, in which is the same with Cambalinc, and 

 Ouinzy upon the Oriental seas, as far as to the borders of East 

 Tartary. 



&quot; At the same time, and an age after or more, the inhabitants of 

 the great Atlantis did flourish. For though the narration and descrip 

 tion which is made by a great man, with you, of the descendants of 

 Neptune planted there, and of the magnificent temple, palace, city, 

 and hill, and the manifold streams of goodly navigable rivers, which, 

 as so many chains, environed the same sight and temple, and the 

 several degrees of ascent, whereby men did climb up to the same, as 

 if it had been a scala cccli, be all poetical and fabulous ; yet so much 

 is true, that the said country of Atlantis, as well as that of Peru, then 

 called Coya, as that of Mexico, then named Tyrambel, were mighty 

 and proud kingdoms in arms, shipping, and riches ; so mighty, as at 

 one time, or at least within the space often years, they both made two 

 great expeditions ; they of Tyrambel through the Atlantic to the Medi 

 terranean Sea, and they of Coya, through the South Sea, upon this our 

 island. And for the former of these, which was into Europe, the same 

 author amongst you, as it seemeth, had some relation from the Egyptian 

 priest whom he citcth, for assuredly such a thing there was. But 

 whether it were the ancient Athenians that had the glory of the repulse 

 and resistance of those forces, I can say nothing ; but certain it is, 

 there never came back either ship or man from that voyage. Neither 

 had the other voyage of those of Coya upon us had better fortune, if 

 they had not met with enemies of greater clemency. For the king of 

 this island, by name Altabin, a wise man and a great warrior, knowing 

 well both his own strength and that of his enemies, handled the matter 

 so, as he cut off their land-forces from their ships, and cntoiled both 

 their navy and their camp with a greater power than theirs, both by 

 sea and land, anci compelled them to render themselves without striking 

 stroke ; and after they were at his mercy, contenting himself only with 

 their oath that they should no more bear arms against him, dismissed 



